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Is Friendship is Magic going through Seasonal Rot?
It's safe to say that the third season of Friendship is Magic has been... controversial. Every episode seemed to have some complaint lodged at it by the mass consensus—''The Crystal Empire'' had a terrible villain, One Bad Apple botched up the bullying moral, Magic Duel ''was underwhelming, ''Keep Calm and Flutter On had horrible pacing, etc. There was no universally loved episode in this season, like Hurricane Fluttershy or Suited for Success, and pretty much since the season began I've been trying to find out "why." I've looked through many doors and come up with no answer that either didn't make sense, or was full of bullshit. The most notable "excuses" of the show's decline of quality are a decline in writing and Lauren Faust's departure from the show. The first argument is very hard to quantify without taking it on a case-by-case basis, and when you do that you'll end up comparing apples to oranges. Each episode is different: has different plots, conflicts, interactions. Unless one episode blatantly rips off another, the argument cannot be substantiated. Lauren Faust's departure is an argument that... well... doesn't make sense—mainly for one solitary fact. No one has ever told me exactly what she contributed to the show, besides a "bible" which the writers still continue to use. Her involvement didn't prevent "accidents" from happening. The plots of The Show Stoppers and Boast Busters were a mess. Characterization was off in Look Before You Sleep and Owl's Well That Ends Well. Morals were sometimes botched up—such as the infamous Feeling Pinkie Keen, which screwed up its moral so badly that she herself apologized for it. The episodes that she did directly have involvement in—as a writer—were also fairly weak. The Friendship is Magic ''two parter has some extremely cheesy dialogue, and the second part is so rushed that it feels like there are some scenes missing. The most common example I cite is when Applejack just tells Twilight to fall off the cliff-side without giving any reason why. Lauren is not a bad writer, most of the time. She was a writer for ''The Powerpuff Girls Movie, and wrote some of the better episodes of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends—such as Store Wars, Goodbye to Bloo, and Seeing Red. But she wasn't infallible either, writing both Everyone Knows It's Bendy and Partying is such Sweet Soire—''a couple of the more infuriating episodes of that show. What I'm saying is, if you think that Lauren made FiM great then please tell me why; instead of just saying she's great and blaming Meghan McCarthy for the show's decline. And that brings us to Meghan McCarthy—the next most common argument for the decline of FiM. People who didn't like the third season are quick to blame her—in let's say unfriendly tones. I don't really think I need to point to examples. She's a very good writer, namely on episodes such as ''Party of One, Dragonshy, Lesson Zero, and the (almost) universally loved A Canterlot Wedding. I mean, if there was any writer to pick to take over the show, she would seem like the prime candidate. She introduced the CMC in Call of the Cutie, and proved how likable Rarity could be in Sweet and Elite. Obviously writing ability does not equal show-running ability. Here's the thing though, Meghan McCarthy has had experience as a show-runner before. She was the head writer of Class of 3000, which was an alright show. It didn't exactly hit anything out of the park, but I do remember it fondly. The question I need to pose is: what EXACTLY did Lauren bring that McCarthy did not. Until someone can come up with an answer, that argument is moot and I will not hear it. Another argument is that the flaws stick out more because there are only thirteen episodes. In my Season 3 overview I sort of detailed this. I divided each season into two's, and compared them to each other. The results were that the first thirteen episodes of season 1 and the last thirteen episodes of season 2 were the worst stretches—and I went critically light on each of them. Season 3 was on par with the first thirteen episodes of season 2 and the last thirteen episodes of season 1, and I personally would have a hard time chooosing which one of those stretches I would rather. There are other random arguments that weren't quantified, or were easily debunked (hubris and slapstick respectively), so I decided to take a look at various other series that took on seasonal rot. The first thing that crossed your mind was probably Spongebob. I've tangled with the yellow devil six times (seven depending on what time this goes up). Spongebob Squarepants probably has/had the largest adult fanbase of any airing cartoon, mostly because it was one of the magical few who were able to keep its run-time going for almost fifteen years. The first three seasons of Spongebob were undoubtedly good cases of rather screwball comedy. Then a movie came out, the show was renewed for a fourth season, and there was a change of show-runners. When seasonal rot hits, it hits hard. We've had Spongebob episodes where one character gets their toenail ripped off in gory detail, and another one where we're treated to eleven-minutes of a grotesque pussy splinter. Previously childish characters are flanderized to the point of playing with baby toys. Characters and animals are abused for comedy while others stay oblivious, for more comedy. This is probably why I've had more tolerance towards FiM's "decline in quality." I might be biased, I realize that. Either that, or I'm able to keep my head and not call something "the worst possible thing" when I know that it's undeniably not. I'm not going to call bronies lucky that they're spoiled compared to the shlock that Spongebob has spewed. After all, being lit on fire isn't exactly what I'd call better than being thrown in a volcano. It's just that this might give us information as to how seasonal rot takes hold. For the sake of argument, I'm going to consider Spike at Your Service as an outlier. Most of us agree that that one is pretty bad, and it's bad enough to skew the scale. To be fair, I'll also drop the most infamous episodes from seasons one and two (Pinkie Keen and Mare Do Well respectively). To start, was there any body horror/gross-out in season 3 of Friendship is Magic? The most disgusting episode of FiM (imo) is A Bird in the Hoof, where we're treated to a dying bird for 22 minutes. The only other usage of gross-out humor in the entire show seemed to be in Baby Cakes with Pinkie forced to change dirty diapers. Season 3 had no episodes that used any instances of gross-out humor. The closest thing was Rarity eating a burnt pie in Spike at Your Service. Next is flanderization—taking one trait of a character and multiplying tenfold. This was actually a criticism lobbied against season 2 a lot. Sometimes it was justified such as Rarity's behavior in Dragon Quest. Other times, such as Twilight's behavior in Lesson Zero, it was more that the episode decided to focus on the character's flaws, which was season two's primary objective. It's an easy mistake for anyone to make. Here's a simple test to determine whether or not a character is flanderized. Ask "Can I sum up this character in one or two sentences." This obviously doesn't work for minor characters. This also doesn't apply to out of character behaviors. Does this argument apply to any of the characters in any of the season 3 episodes? Twilight is a bookish unicorn. She is a bit neurotic at times. Nothing is more valuable to her than her friends. Her biggest fear is letting Princess Celestia down. Twilight's safe. Spike is Twilight's number one assistant. He's young so he is frequently naive. He's actually really sensitive. He frequently keeps Twilight's neurosis in check. Spike is safe. Applejack is stubborn. She finds value in her family. She keeps her senses and sensibilities firmly on the ground. Even Applejack is safe. Rarity is a fashion-designer. She can get melodramatic. She has an appreciation for the finer things in life. The other characters seemed to have the most criticism lodged at them. Rainbow Dash is brash and bold. Her dream is to be in the wonderbolts. She is willing to sacrifice her dream to do what is right. Fluttershy is incredibly timid. She is very protective of her animal friends. She has a crazy side, and possible a personality disorder. Pinkie Pie is zany and fun-loving. Her friends mean more to her than anything else. She sometimes misses social ques. According to this simple test, none of the characters are flanderized to an unacceptable degree. They all apply to the season 3 characters (some of these ONLY apply to season 3 characters). Another thing you can do is compare each of the characters to their appearances in the pilot. This test was also not on an episode-by-episode basis, but as a season overall. Character abuse for comedy (known as Kefka comedy) is the final sign from Spongebob. If you're going with sheer slapstick (which isn't exactly this trope), then season 3 took a step down from season 2. If anything season 2 has more of this, with episodes like May the Best Pet Win where Rainbow was tormenting Tank, and Putting Your Hoof Down where everyone was tormenting Fluttershy and vice-versa. From this, it seems like season 2 (my favorite season) has more signs of seasonal rot than season 3. Next stop, the Simpsons. Season 11 is cited by many as the worst; at the very least it does not have too many supporters. A lot of it had to do with episodes that changed the show's dynamic. This is the season that killed off Maude Flanders, a secondary character. (This would like if they killed off Mr. Cake). This is the season that had Barney stop drinking, his defining character trait. It gave Apu and Manjula Octuplets, and had many other problem episodes, like Saddlesore: Galactica. If that's any clue, it seems that the problem is change. That's not it either. In FiM's season 3: Discord and Trixie had returned, Rainbow started on her journey to becoming a wonderbolt, Scootaloo got a closer relationship to Rainbow. These are all changes that the fans wanted, unlike killing off Maude Flanders or having Barney stop drinking. Whether FiM's changes were done with tact (especially the big one that I didn't mention) depends on the person you're acting. Just keep in mind that season 2 also had many changes (A Canterlot Wedding; Lesson Zero; Read It and Weep). If we want to determine whether or not Season 3 is a sign of seasonal rot, we must come up with an argument that can only apply to season 3, or at the very least apply to season 3 to a great extent more than the other two. Also note that the changes in season 2 didn't seem to be the ones that the fans were clamoring for. Maybe the problem is fan service? Like Derpy's appearance in The Last Roundup, the superhero tributes in Mare Do Well, the Q-like villain in The Return of Harmony, or the New Hope reference from that very same episode? Seeing Fluttershy take a stand in Putting Your Hoof Down? Or what about the Indiana Jones references in Read It and Weep. Do I have to do another count-thingy? Because I will if I have to. All I'm looking for is an answer. One I haven't been able to find. Believe me, I've looked at all of the harshest critics of season 3 as a whole. Unfortunately, the reasons I've found ended up being selective—it's okay when S1-2 does it, but not 3—nitpicky, misinformed, or just plain wrong. Hype backlash isn't a reason I particularly subscribe to either. That goes away after repeated viewings, and after the opening two parter it probably would have worn off. I'm not blind, stupid, or being reversely selective. I'm fully aware that there are duds in season 3. They depend on who you ask. I've failed Keep Calm and Flutter On; One Bad Apple; and Spike at Your Service. To me, those are the bad episodes of season 3. Someone might like one of those, and yet hate Just for Sidekicks. Just remember that you can hate whichever episodes you want. There are plenty of reasons to fail any episode from the show. Someone somewhere can find a flaw because no work—pony or not—is ever perfect. And if you hit anything hard enough with a hammer, it's going to break. I'm asking for help. What am I not seeing about season 3 of Friendship is Magic that so many others have seemed to? Category:Miscellaneous